1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the Smart Grid, and more particularly to a platform configured to manage and integrate various heretofore disparate operations associated with conventional power grid operations, to provide intelligent, various new capabilities.
2. Background Information
There is currently a lack of systems and methods capable of facilitating the systematized management of Demand Response and Smart Grid Programs and Applications, and to integrate them with their organizational Information Technology (IT) systems. There is also a lack of Enterprise Architecture that can be leveraged by Energy clients as reference architecture to achieve their Smart Grid objectives. Still further, there lacks a platform which enables convenient development and deployment of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) type applications for Smart Grid applications.
Up to now, within an energy company, integration of energy grid applications has generally been an afterthought and primarily driven by whatever technology a particular application vendor offered. Energy companies tended to implement their project-focused integration objectives using one-off approaches in which an application was integrated with another application through a point to point and often proprietary approach. This point to point and organic growth over the years has generally resulted in an “Accidental Architecture” that provides little interoperability, little scalability, and often an interdependence which requires an all-or-none approach to application upgrades. Moreover, application data tends to be locked in silos and cannot be shared or integrated easily. Furthermore, although a market for energy trading exists, the so called energy value-chain which refers to the various energy industry participants and stakeholders, is not connected through any unified, automated technology, making it difficult for the fluctuation in energy prices to be leveraged for the benefit of the consumer and for more efficient delivery of power to consumers. Without an integrated market, the consumer typically ends up paying a pre-defined rate—generally higher than the optimal rate, thereby denying the consumer complete benefits of the energy market which can typically result in lower prices, variable prices, discounts and more value that equates to transparency to the energy market and greater grid reliability. With less competition in the energy market, grid reliability also suffers. Additionally, unlike the electrical grid that is highly integrated from generation to the consumer, the information technology and systems of various energy industry participants who are responsible for the energy generation, transmission, distribution and market operation are generally not integrated or at least communicating in a manner that would enable the implementation of Smart Grid services such as automated self healing of the grid, leveraging of price and market signals from the market, increasing grid reliability, consumer empowerment and others.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method capable of addressing one or more of the foregoing drawbacks.